Handy avoids jail time pending trial

McALLEN — Prosecutors described it as the last chance to put a “master manipulator” behind bars before she did any further damage to her ongoing criminal case.

But a federal judge disagreed, refusing to revoke Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy’s bond Tuesday and allowing her to remain under house arrest until her trial next month.

During a six-hour court hearing, the government argued that Handy should be sent to jail in light of several incidents in which she allegedly tried to influence those scheduled to testify against her on charges of conspiracy, tax fraud and harboring illegal immigrants.

And while U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos said she found the commissioner’s continued contact with government witnesses suspicious, she ultimately decided to loosen the conditions of a 24-hour home lockdown imposed last week to allow her to leave her house for family and county business.

“Frankly, I don’t see anything innocent about it,” Ramos said. “But I don’t think it is enough to revoke your bond.”

‘THE GODFATHER’

Throughout the hearing, two widely divergent characterizations of Handy emerged: that of a devoted public servant, friend and mother, and that of a calculating politician willing to use her employees and even her own children in her efforts to stay out of prison.

“She’s a monster manipulator,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez said. “I like to use the term ‘The Godfather.’ She gives these people things to obligate them to do things for her, and that’s how she gets people to do her bidding.”

Since her arrest in April, Handy has denied allegations that she hired at least three illegal immigrant women to work as housekeepers and babysitters in her home. And she has maintained ignorance of claims that all three were on the payroll of her Precinct 1 office despite never having done any work for the county.

But in audio recordings played for the court Tuesday, the commissioner came off as a woman with something to hide.

A confidential FBI informant recorded the March 2007 conversation between Handy and seven others as federal investigators began building their case against her.

On the recordings, the commissioner pleads with the women — including the three purported illegal servants — to lie to agents about their work in the Handy home.

“The two bottom-line issues are that nobody ever worked here and got paid by the county, and that I didn’t know anything,” she is heard saying in the recordings.

As the discussion continues, Handy explains that a criminal conviction could cost her much more than it would cost an ordinary first-time offender.

“For anybody else that’s not an elected official and it’s their first time, they’ll get probation,” she said. “They don’t send you to jail. For someone like me, they send me straight to prison.”

If all else failed, she is heard telling the women, she could help cushion any fall they might take on her behalf by paying off court-assessed fines and pulling strings behind the scenes.

“I can do that,” she said. “I know everyone. I know all the judges.”

‘NOBODY’S GOING TO FIND OUT’

After her indictment in April, Handy was prohibited from contact with any potential witnesses in her case as a condition of her $100,000 bond. But that didn’t stop her from continuing efforts to influence her case, said Rodriguez, the federal prosecutor.

Hidalgo County Human Resources Director Esther Cortez — one of 161 people to appear on the government’s witness list — testified she was not even aware she might be subpoenaed until Handy brought it up during a meeting in August.

“I was surprised that she told me that,” Cortez told the court Tuesday. “I thought that information was confidential. I felt uncomfortable.”

That uneasy feeling set in again less than a month later, when the commissioner sent her a “huge” gift basket to wish her a speedy recovery from injuries sustained in a car wreck.

Cortez returned the gift and dodged several phone calls from Handy in the following days, she said.

Amelia Garcia — who had babysat Handy’s son Gabriel for three years — contacted FBI agents last month when the 11-year-old offered her $500 concert tickets days after she had testified against his mother in front of a grand jury.

When she turned them down, Handy and her 17-year-old daughter Arielle contacted her twice more to insist that she accept.

Transcripts of those conversations are littered with exchanges that suggest the commissioner put her children up to the offer and that they knew the gifts might be viewed as improper by outsiders, prosecutors said.

“To be honest with you, there’s a lot of (expletive) going on right now,” Garcia is quoted as telling Arielle in one transcribed conversation. “I don’t think I should (accept).”

“They’re just tickets,” Handy’s daughter responds. “I don’t see anything wrong with that. Nobody’s going to find out.”

But Handy’s defense attorney, Al Alvarez, balked at the government’s portrayal of these latest encounters, arguing that no member of his client’s family ever asked the potential witnesses to change their testimony.

The gift basket delivered to Cortez was nothing more than a gesture of sympathy to an injured co-worker, he said. The concert tickets were merely intended as a no-strings gift to a longtime family friend.

“That doesn’t make her a manipulator. It makes her a generous person,” Alvarez said.

‘GET OUT OF ITS WAY’

Handy remained composed throughout Tuesday’s proceedings as former co-workers and employees described how uncomfortable her gestures made them. Only as Judge Ramos reprimanded her did the county official’s steely veneer dissolve into tears.

In addition to Commissioners Court meetings, Handy will be allowed to leave her home for church services, taking her son to school and visits with her attorney but will remain under GPS monitoring until her Jan. 5 trial date.

At the government’s request, the judge also barred her from accepting any gifts from contractors doing business with the county or asking employees to raise money to cover her legal expenses.

But before dismissing the commissioner for the day, Ramos took one final moment to express disbelief that a woman with 13 years of government experience and a past career as a court reporter could claim such ignorance of standard legal restrictions.

“This is a very fair and just legal system we have,” she told Handy. “By all means, stay away from witnesses and get out of its way.”

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.